By Joan Pounds
On any given day, we are all exposed to many different types of advertising. Even for sites that are offering valuable content, it can take 7-12 different exposures of your website before someone actually will visit your website.
Why Drive the Traffic
Driving traffic to your website will help your readers to find your website and familiarize themselves with your brand. They will become familiar with you and are interested in hearing about the latest news.
Your marketing efforts can be visualized as a giant funnel. You will likely have several different ways that potential customers can enter your funnel. Along the way, for each customer interaction, you want your customer to perform ONE action. Typically, this first action is to sign up to get some free valuable content. When you look at your website, it should be self-evident as to what that first action is. Have someone look at your website and see if they can figure out what that one action is within 10 seconds of having the website display on the screen. If they can’t figure it out within 10 seconds, you need to make it stand out more.
Tell the Masses
Let your friends and family know about your website. Tell them about your irresistible free offer. You are offering something for free and collecting e-mail addresses, right? When you meet someone, tell them about your free content if it applies to their goals. People love to have valuable content for free.
Signature Line
Put your website address in your signature line for your daily e-mails. This just lets people know that your website is available. You can also mention your irresistible free offer here; however, make it more of a public service announcement rather than a high pressure sales blurb. A good way to do that is to pique their interest with a question and direct them to the website for more information.
Submit articles
Use keywords so that search engines can find your website. A great free tool for identifying keywords is found at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Create a Community
People who check out your website and sign up to receive your irresistible offer would also benefit from doing business with each other. Create a membership forum so that those in your own community can benefit from each other.
Use Social Networking
If you haven’t already, create your own fan page or group in Facebook and/or LinkedIn and invite people to talk about the topic of your product. To create a really big stir, be controversial! Generate discussions about that which your followers are passionate.
Write an e-Book
E-books are wonderful because the overhead is so low and they are so easy to download. The information transfer is instantaneous! E-books can be initially dictated verbally if the written word is not your forte’ and later transcribed into a written e-book. You can include a workbook on the material along with the audio because not everyone learns in the same manner.
Create an Affiliate Program
You can create your own affiliate program to assist those who already love your product or service to spread the word about what you are doing. This is the best form of advertising because they speak from their heart and it doesn’t cost you a dime to advertise. Most affiliates will receive a portion of the sale; however, it is likely that you wouldn’t have made the sale without them so it really doesn’t cost you anything.
Create an Event
Creating an event by getting like minded people together requires a bit of work and can be so valuable. Figure out who you would like to share the stage with and what your venue will be and go from there. Perhaps instead of physical appearances, you would prefer that everyone appear via phone or video? That’s an awesome way to get your message out to your guests and keep expenses low! You can also record the talks so that they can be sold as recordings at a later date!
Offer a free Teleclass
By offering a free teleclass, you can let people know what you are doing and find out who is interested in your niche. It’s an excellent way to answer questions and survey those in attendance to find out how you can best service them.
Offer to speak at local events
Speaking at local clubs and events is an excellent way to get the word out about what you do. You can quickly create some Powerpoint slides to keep you on track and give the audience a mini workbook with information on your topic. It will assist them in staying engaged in what you are saying as well as giving them a reason to look at your website when they get back to their office. Give a feedback survey on your talk and present them with an ethical bribe of a giveaway to ensure you get everyone’s contact information. Use the surveys to draw for names of who wins the drawing. Make sure you ask a lot of questions to keep your audience present during your presentation.
Use an Autoresponder
A great way to have someone sign up for your incredible free offer is by way of an opt-in page. Common places to find opt-in pages are by using autoresponders. Autoresponders are pieces of graphics and software to collect information and interact with the customer while you are away from your website. They provide the website owner the ability to present a consistent response to the customer and to help guide the customer to the next logical action. Autoresponders assist you in creating and maintaining your mailing list with very little effort on your part. Your customers love them because they automatically can connect with you and when they are ready to move on, they are able to unsubscribe with the click of a button. The more pleasant impressions that you can make upon the customer while interacting with your website and/or product, the better.
Create a contest
Creating a contest will generate interest from people who are interested in your services and products and give you an opportunity to build your list from the contest participants. The key is to follow up!
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Warmly,
Joan Pounds
